Saturday, March 28, 2009

HunterGatherer is the design/film studio of Todd St. John and frequent collaborator Gary Benzel. I'm not sure who does what over there but it's amazing. I met Gary & Todd years ago when I first moved to California and I fell in love with their designs right away, half my house is products that they developed or prints they've made.. they are both extraordinarily talented designers and super, super nice guys. I was just looking over some of the films/animations over at the HunterGatherer site, and below are some of my all time favorites.. I just love these so much I had to share.. I have never been one for doing animation or any sort of motion graphics myself, but watching these makes me really rethink that. You can see how much fun they have while making all the things they do and it all looks so beautiful, from the sets to the graphics.. anyway, here is a sampling from HunterGatherer

You can also see their collaborative work at the now defunct Green Lady and here is their shop Igloo

I just saw this amazing music video for the song "No One Does It Like You" by the Department Of Eagles... I'm a huge fan of Marcel Dzama's work and it's so great to see his costume designs and basically his illustrations come to life! and the song is really rad too, reminds me of the Arcade Fire, and that is meant to be very complimentary... anyway, enjoy!

A little about the exhibit from the curators:"The Joyful Bewilderment" showcases the work of a group of like minded image-makers. This exhibition can be seen as an expression of these artists compulsion to create. Fundamentally, the artists in the show all share an essential motivation - to explore the possibilities of enhancing everyday life by making magic from the mundane. The works in the show utilize modest and direct means - including works in pencil, paint and ink along with photographic works which record and celebrate everyday happenstances."

Giant Robot San Francisco has a group show opening this Friday the 27th of March called "Game Over, Continue?" which is a video game themed art show which features a piece from me as well as many other amazing artists. I made a collage of the Super Mario Bros 1UP mushroom.. btw Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii was the best thing about my recovery from hand surgery last year, I just got to sit and play all day completely guilt free. Anyway, Giant Robot. San Francisco. Friday March 27 - April 15. Opening reception from 6:30 - 10pm on Friday March 27.

none of these are new videos, or would even qualify as "recent" but I was just checking out some things I had favorited on youtube from a while back and they are pretty rad.. I think this started with my girlfriend showing me the Shaq dancing to Nas video..

Monday, March 16, 2009

My Lithuanian friends over at Moytoy have curated an exhibition called Phobia, featuring some artwork from me, in conjunction with the Pictoplasma Pictopia conference in Berlin which begins on March 17 and goes until March 27. The exhibit is at the Berlin boutique called Talka which is located at: Boxhagener Str. 44, Berlin, Germany. Tons of fun stuff going on in Berlin for the conference.. wish I could be there, but I'm stuck in LA working.. If you are in Germany go check out all the exhibits, lectures, presentations etc. here's a map/guide to everything. RAD!

This Saturday night at Giant Robot 2 in Los Angeles the Year Of The Ox show opens and features a bunch of really amazing people.. I made a special limited edition zine that will be only available at GR2.. come by and grab one!

The Mountain Label is the design studio of Christopher Bettig, a French / American artist living and working in Los Angeles, California. Chris is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art with a BFA degree in painting, but finds himself spending a lot of time developing products, graphics and installations for a diverse group of clientele.
themountainlabel.com